Parents:
The Federal Government has a program to provide phone service to individuals that meet specific qualifications. Due to the pandemic, more people than normal qualify. The Federal government has also added a data plan benefit for families.
We have been told by a parent that the EBB can be used to pay part of your normal cell phone bill with major carriers. It is a lengthy process but could save you money. You would have to contact your carrier.
To get started, go to the website and apply.
We are not endorsing any of the following, but just want to share possibilities.
Assurance Wireless provides a free cell phone and service. You can get the EBB data on the phone or just get text and calling. Service is with TMobile.
RedPocket Mobile also provides text and calling, but they do not provide a phone. They can put you on AT&T which has better service in this area, but the default carrier is T-Mobile. At this time they also have EBB data available for free and you can purchase an inexpensive tablet or bring your own phone.
We recently spoke to a parent who has an Assurance Phone with only text and calling. She called Verizon where she already had her cell phone service and they applied her EBB benefit to her account. This is saving her money each month. She has a phone and data that are separate. Prior to this, to our knowledge, the phone and data had to be combined.
We have been asked if we can apply the EBB benefit to our school's hotspot program. We can not do that. Our Hotspot program is very discounted and has unlimited data for all of our users at this time. The EBB program's data limit is 30GB to 50 GB depending on the carrier.
We just wanted our community to have the opportunity to save money. The process can be time-consuming, but usually, it does not take long to benefit from these two separate programs.
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